Sea Dogs Notebook

HOFFMAN

Former Sea Dogs forward Mike Hoffman has re-signed with the Ottawa Senators. From TSN:

The Ottawa Senators have signed centre Mike Hoffman one-year, two way contract on Wednesday. 

The restricted free agent will earn $660,000 at the NHL level and $67,000 in the American Hockey League.

Hoffman scored 13 goals and 15 assists in 41 AHL games with the Binghamton Senators last year. He also played three NHL games with Ottawa but went pointless. His playing time was limited last season due to a collarbone injury.

The Kitchener native played as an overage player with Saint John in 2009-10.

FISHING

Buzzing The Net had their annual post of what some CHL players are doing for work this summer up on their site on Wednesday. Featured this year was Sea Dogs forward and PEI fisherman Stephen Anderson.

"It keeps you in shape," Anderson said. "You're throwing around 300-pound collectors around all day, so you get your upper body strength going for sure. The time passes quickly, so it's a win-win situation."

GELINAS

As the Fire Ice blog explains, there’s a chance we could see former Sea Dogs defenseman Eric Gelinas starting next season with the New Jersey Devils.

“I just want to be here and do my thing and if it works out, it’s going to be beneficial for me and I’m going to be happy about it, but I don’t want to set my bars so high,” he said. “I just want to keep everything simple and just enjoy the moment and try to prove myself that I can play here on a regular basis.”

Gelinas, who won the Memorial Cup with Saint John in 2011, is attending Devils development camp this week. He spent last year in the AHL but did make his NHL debut in the spring.

The Devils Army Blog also had a prospect profile on Gelinas this week.

ORGANIZATIONAL RANKINGS

Hockey Prospectus released their latest NHL organizational rankings a couple weeks ago. Check those out if you’re interested. Maybe you’re not. I don’t know.

Spoiler alert: Danick Gauther and the Tampa Bay Lightning are ranked first.

TRAVERSE CITY

The annual Traverse City prospects tournament will take place this September. There should be some former Sea Dogs playing in it.

Buffalo, Carolina, Columbus, New York Rangers, Dallas, Detroit, Minnesota, and St. Louis will all be taking part.

The schedule for rookie tournament was released Wednesday.

SISKA

A Slovakian website had an article on the Sea Dogs drafting Juraj Siska in the CHL Import Draft. Check that out if you can read Slovakian or can access Google Translate.

Photo above is what Google translates the headline of the article to.

And if you haven’t heard, Siska is recovering from a scary injury suffered last season.

KNOX

Former Sea Dog and UPEI Panther forward Jordan Knox will play with the Miskolci Polar Bears in Hungary next season, reports the Charlottetown Guardian.

“I’ve always kind of thought the bigger ice in Europe might be a better fit for me, and my speed,” he told the newspaper.

“This seems to be a pretty good stepping stone to maybe get a step higher in another league in Europe in the next couple of years. I thought I’d give it a try for a year and see what happens.”

Knox played two games with the Sea Dogs in 2007-08.

PHILLIPS

Here’s Zack Phillips speaking at Minnesota Wild development camp.

3^RD LINE GRIND

The 3^rd Line Grind radio program is still rolling! Tune in every Friday at 6pm on Local 107.3 FM in Saint John or localfm.ca on the interweb to hear myself and Sea Dogs communications manager Rob Williams talk about stuff.